Lent: The Holy Pause that Transforms Our Lives

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Revelation 8:1, RSV2CE)

There is a deep need within the heart of believers to pause in the presence of profound events, circumstances so significant that we become caught up in them as they transform our lives. These experiences become a part of us. The world seems to stop and we are transfixed in a moment of grace as we come to understand our part in the journey of humanity from the depths of our sin to the dawn of our salvation. In this holy hour, we become malleable like the clay, ready to be shaped by the Divine Potter into a vessel worthy to carry the love that has been poured out on our behalf by the Son of God.

Lent is holy pause that happens every year, calling us once again to take hold of what it means to walk the road to Calvary with the One who offered his life to forgive our sins. It rouses us from the slumber of indifference and apathy, as it leads us along the Way of the Cross. We take our place in the story of redemption as we witness our Lord being led as a lamb to the slaughter, the Passover sacrifice for the sinful, lost souls of this world. In this age of sorrow and savagery, we need to once again immerse ourselves in the Season of Lent and allow it to bring us to our knees in a holy, prayerful pause.

Finding Rest in a Restless World

I have always been a restless soul, constantly seeking new experiences, but at the same time, desiring to be at rest. I love to hike up mountains; and yet I love also to sit in front of my fireplace and dream. However, our current troubled times have certainly thrust me into the desert of disillusionment and despair. The world seems to be falling apart around us, and those times in my life of triumph and spiritual rest have become more difficult to grasp. In our current culture sin is celebrated, as good is called evil, and evil good. Catholics are losing sight of the beauty and holiness of our faith. It sometimes appears as though the gates of hell are indeed proving stronger than the Church, as those once solid doctrines that grounded us in the Holy Spirit are being challenged, ignored, and dismissed, even by shepherds within the Body of Christ.

It is now, more than ever, that we need the power and presence of Christ that is found in our Lenten devotion. We must heed Lent’s call to pause and remember the Passion of Christ and all it holds for us as believers. The disciplines of fasting, prayer, and generosity can draw us to that sacred space where heaven and earth are reconciled at the cross, where Jesus takes our place as he becomes our sin offering. There, on the tree, the Son redeems us from all our transgressions, leading us back to the Father who has loved us to the full.

Pausing for the Passion

When I was younger, I remember going to Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent. I can recall vividly how the priest and acolytes would pause and kneel before the carved wooden images on the walls depicting the last hours of Christ, while we read from the Scriptures about the Crucifixion and the Old Testament prophecies that pointed to it. It was a solemn and sorrowful ceremony, reminding me in very clear terms just what the Son of God went through to pay the immeasurable debt I owed for my sin.

So many today find the season of Lent to be burdensome. Some non-Catholic churches ignore the season altogether, saving their special sermons for Good Friday and Easter Sunday alone. Perhaps they would rather focus more on the joy of the resurrection than the humility of the cross. But of late, I have come to see just how tragic this withdrawal from the journey to Golgotha can be. With our lives so busy and our hearts so overwhelmed with the crushing weight of these disordered times, we truly need this holy pause if we are to find the strength to stand firm against the enemy and rediscover our life in Christ.

Jesus, the Son of God, left the mansions of heaven and humbled himself to come among us as a man. His every word and deed revealed the story of salvation he had come to fulfill. From the sin of Adam to the triumph of the cross, our Lord lived out his mission to draw our weary souls to the place where he would lay down his life in love. His baptism was a picture of the depths of his holy charge, for he plunged into the chaos of this sin-filled world, only to rise again in victory on Easter morn. As he washed his disciples’ feet, he showed how he had stripped himself of his heavenly garment, bending low in the incarnation to become the perfect servant to wash us clean and give us a part in his redeeming life. And in the celebration of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, we received the bread that came down from heaven, the true food and drink, given for humanity so that we would have life and have it to the full.

Afraid to Pause for the Pain

It seems that these recent years of madness have softened our collective memory about the humility of our Lord’s incarnation and the suffering he endured on our behalf, so much so that some men have forgotten what it means to gaze upon the beaten and bloodied form of our Messiah upon the cross. The current insanity of our society seems to have numbed us to its horror – and its beauty. Like the proverbial frog in the pot, we have no idea that we are trapped in a world that is boiling away, being slowly destroyed inside by forces hoping to drive us into submission. We are unaware of our need to pause, put on the Passion of our Lord, and take up our cross as we walk with him up that rugged road to the hill where he spilled his last drop of blood for the world.

Years ago, when the Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of the Christ came out in theaters, some churches held discussions about the film and the Crucifixion of Jesus. In general, people found the movie shocking and horrific. Many could not stand seeing their Savior subjected to torture on the big screen. The scourging scene was particularly difficult for many, and most people overestimated the actual amount of time it took, believing it to be 20-30 minutes, when, in fact, the scene took less than seven.

In many ways the movie was a wakeup call to believers about the true nature of Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross. But in truth, even with all the deeper meaning woven into the scenes by the director, this cinematic holy pause could never capture the incredible agony our Lord endured in suffering for the sins of men. And yet, we are called in the season of Lent to stand and face the crucifixion in all its horror, so that we may see in the anguish of the Son of Man, the joy that led him to the cross, and the love that held him there until the very end.

Heaven’s Holy Pause

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus lay prostrate before his Father, praying that the cup might pass him by. Then, after the briefest and most profound pause, Our Lord bowed down to the Father’s will and took upon himself the sins of all the world. He was bound, tried before sinful men, beaten, scourged, and crowned with thorns. In the end he took up his cross and struggled up the hill to Golgotha, where he was lifted up before the world and crucified to the mocking voices of the ones he came to save.

After a time, the sky grew dark and Jesus uttered the words from the 22nd Psalm: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1a). What followed was the most overwhelming silence the world has ever known. In that hour, Jesus bore the full weight of the sins of humanity as he gave himself in love to the Father, redeeming a debt we could never hope to pay. While we esteemed him to be stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, he was “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities” as all our wickedness was laid upon him and he made himself an offering for sin (See Isaiah 53). Before the eyes of men there was darkness and then death, a holy, pregnant pause. Before the eyes of men there was darkness and then death, a holy, pregnant pause.

And yet, this was not a cry of despair. In quoting the opening verse of the psalm, Jesus was laying bear its full meaning before all the world. This was a song of perfect hope, for though the Son was suffering beyond our comprehension, he expressed his total trust in his Father. Consider the second half of the psalm:
 

I will tell of your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
all you sons of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted;
  and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD!
May your hearts live for ever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD;
  and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.
Yes, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and he who cannot keep himself alive
Posterity shall serve him;
men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
that he has wrought it. (Psalm 22:22-31, RSV2CE)

 

Jesus did not despair; nor did his Father turn his face away, despite what the poetic Protestant hymn may proclaim. Though Christ experienced suffering that none of us could ever imagine, he surrendered himself in perfect love to the Father, revealing the nature of the Trinity in the fullest way possible, so that you and I could be forgiven and made new. This is why it is so critical that we pause during this holy season and come to the fullest understanding possible of Christ’s sacrifice as Lent moves in us and pulls us up from the depths of our despair to the dawn of new hope.

Shaking Things Up

When I shake off my cowardice and come trembling before the cross, truly taking in the reality of what our Savior suffered for me, his scars become so beautiful that my heart is broken beyond what I can bear. My sin becomes so ugly and my shame so deep that the façade of my life is torn down and I am exposed as the sinner I am, joining with the jeering crowd standing before Christ hanging on the holy tree. It is in that sacred moment that I experience the weight of my transgressions pressing down upon the brow of my Lord like the thorny crown, striking his holy flesh like the blows of the bone-tipped whip, and mocking his great love for me like the self-righteous lovers of the laws of men.

And yet, in that time of intense sorrow, I hear his tender voice speaking the words, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34a).  With his words I am lifted from the pit of my despair and drawn into the depths of a love so powerful and so perfect, that I am able to shake off my sin and rise redeemed, knowing I am forgiven and set free because of his sacrifice upon the cross.

Are we as Catholic believers willing to surrender our pride, our selfishness, and our fear in order to stand before the cross, gazing upon the crucified Savior crying out to his Father with words of love that bring healing, and shedding blood so pure that all our sins are washed away? Can we face the terrifying darkness of that holy pause and bear the powerful shaking of the earth as our mighty God breaks open the temple, splitting the heavy curtain before the Holy of Holies, opening forever the realms of glory to sinful men? O, beloved – if we are willing to live in that holy moment, we receive a gift so great that all our sufferings are but a breath in comparison with the eternity to come!

Another Holy Pause to Come

In the Psalms, the word “Selah” is said to mean, “Take pause and consider this!” Lent is a time when we pause to consider the awesome reality of our salvation and what it cost our Savior to obtain it for us. Jesus, the Great King of Heaven, paused in eternity so that he could enter into flesh and endure the cruelest physical torture, mental anguish, and spiritual suffering the world has ever seen. His sacrifice deserves that we drop to our knees and ponder what it means for us as men to have been saved by the Suffering Servant of God.

Someday there will be another holy pause in heaven at the time of the Great Judgment, when those who reject Christ will be forever separated from the Father in hell, and we who believe will experience the joy and peace of eternity with God!

Perhaps that moment is coming soon, or perhaps it is years in the future. Whatever will come, as God’s children, we are called to pause and consider all that this holy season offers to us. May this Lent cause us to step back from this broken world to allow the miracle of the cross to overwhelm us like a mighty flood. May we praise Jesus for our salvation and pledge to walk the journey of Lent, fully surrendered in joy and wonder to the presence of the One who suffered and died for our sins!

A Lenten Prayer

Father, forgive me for shying away from the crucifixion, for watering it down and numbing myself to the horrific agony your Son suffered for me. Help me to meditate on the last hours of my Savior and to marvel at the love that held him fast while he was mocked, beaten, crowned with thorns, made to walk the painful path to Golgotha, and hung upon the cruel cross – all for me. Help me to pause in fear and trembling at so great a sacrifice, freely given for a sinner like me. May I be overwhelmed at the love of the Trinity revealed in the outpouring of Christ’s love upon the cross, and may I fall to my knees in worship and praise of the One who went through death and hell and came out on the other side – for me! I offer this prayer in his precious name, Amen!